Computer systems are becoming increasingly complex and may include advanced processors, including multicore processors. Dual-core processors having two processor cores that execute instructions concurrently have been introduced. It is anticipated that in the future, processors will be manufactured that include additional cores, e.g., more than two cores. Current road maps include processors with four and eight cores. Additionally, long term it is anticipated that processors will evolve to a many-core environment, in which many cores are present in a single processor package, and even on a single substrate or die of the package. Accordingly, it is anticipated that processors with 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 or more cores will become available in the future.
These many cores may be relatively simple, e.g., in-order cores to ease complexity and power dissipation issues. Such cores may accordingly execute parallel applications with reduced power consumption. However, as the complexity of cores is simplified, complexity and power dissipation of an interconnect system that couples these cores together increases. Furthermore, such an interconnect system can consume a significant chip area. Thus while processors based on simple cores may reduce complexity and power dissipation by the cores, other portions of the processor, such as the interconnect system may consume some or all of these gains.